John Hutchison & Ronnie Milione

The Philadelphia Experiment Recreated!

 

NAVY RADAR SYSTEMS

 

 

AN/SPS-49 Radar

AN-SPS-49
(click to expand: 24 kByte)    The AN/SPS-49 radar is the navy's principal long-range two-dimensional air search radar. As such it has been used on a variety of combatants including aircraft carriers, Aegis and non-Aegis cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and amphibious ships including LSDs and LHDs. Up to 200 systems have been operational at one time. Originally developed to provide general air surveillance against aircraft, it also provides significant detection performance against both high altitude and sea-skimming missiles due to its high average power, clutter rejection, anti-jamming, and automatic detection features.

Several versions of the radar have been produced over the years including the following major variants:

Major characteristics common to all versions of the radar include:

The Radar Division of the Naval Research Laboratory has been involved in the SPS-49 program since its inception. Contributions include participating in specification development, design reviews, factory acceptance testing, and planning and conducting performance evaluation tests, both land-based and shipboard. A key feature of the most recent version of the radar, the SPS-49A(V)1 is single-scan radial velocity estimation of all targets allowing faster promotion to firm track and improved maneuver detection. This is done using unique signal processing techniques originated and tested by the Radar Division of NRL using 6.1 and 6.2 Office of Naval Research (ONR) funds. The results of this research have been transferred into production.

 

Specifications

frequency: 850 to 942 megahertz's
pulse repetition time (PRT): 280, 800 or 1000 hertz's
pulse repetition frequency (PRF): 120 microseconds
pulsewidth (PW):  
receive time:  
dead time:  
peak power: 280 to 360 kilowatts
average power: 12 to 13 kilowatts
displayed range: 250 nautical miles
range resolution: 0.03 nautical miles
beamwidth: 3.3 degrees
hits per scan:  
antenna rotation: 6 or 12 rpm.